PRINT AIN'T DEAD YET
Jessica Helfand (2000)
◼️◼️Typography is letters (and numbers) and why they look the way they do. Sometimes letters are BIG AND LOUD and sometimes letters are small and quiet. Typography can make words look good. It can also make words look bad.
◼️21. March 2000
Dear Fiona:
You are turning 2 in a few weeks and I think it's high time you understood a thing or two about graphic design. After all, you are part of Generation ABC and what are ABCs, after all, but typography?
◼️◼️◼️But the way they look – whether they're pink or purple or big or small or quiet or noisy or happy or scary or funny or weird, well, that's something that comes from typography. Which is also called type.
Which is sometimes called print.
◼️◼️◼️◼️Printing is what you do when you write letters one at a time, as opposed to script, which is when you write letters so-that-they-con-nect-to-each-other-like-this. Printing is also used to describe what happens when machines (called “presses”) get hold of all those words, all that typography, and actually press the letters together onto paper.
◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️Now here's the really confusing part. A lot of people say print is dead. Flat and not moving. Dead, like when we drive down our road and see a rabbit or a woodchuck that didn't make it across in time.
Print isn't dead, sweetheart. It's just sleeping.
◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️So as you begin to learn your ABCs, remember that your mind is like a giant alarm clock that wakes those letters up so that they spell something, so that they mean something, whether they're on TV or in
a book or scratched on the side of a wall somewhere. And while you're at it, remember that S isn't the same as 5 and L isn't the same as 1. Remember that 1 LoV3 U isn't the same as I LOVE YOU even though
it looks cool. Remember that anything that looks cool probably won't look cool for very long. Remember that very long means, well, probably about a day-and-a-half. Remember that pictures may speak louder than words, but that words speak volumes. Remember that sometimes typography can help you understand something or react to something or feel a certain way faster, but that it probably won't help resolve conflicts between embittered nations or advance your capacity for reason or prevent you from getting bee stings or tick bites or chicken pox. Remember that spelling mistakes are celebrated in email but not tole- rated in literature. Remember that literature is made up of stories that are what they are because someone wrote them down, letter by letter, word by word, intending for them to be read and remembered and retold for years and years and years to come.
◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️◼️And even though we read them printed on paper and you will very likely read them emblazoned on a screen,
do you know what, Fiona? It doesn't matter, because no matter what
the typography does (or doesn't do), and no matter what the print is (or isn't), words are just ideas waiting to be read. And reading will never die. Reading is your ticket to the world.
PRINT AIN'T DEAD YET.
Jessica Helfand
21. March 2000
Dear Fiona: You are turning 2 in a few weeks and I think it's high time you understood a thing or two about graphic design. After all, you are part of Generation ABC and what are ABCs, after all, but typography?
Typography is letters (and numbers) and why they look the way they do. Sometimes letters are BIG AND LOUD and sometimes letters are small and quiet. Typography can make words look good. It can also make words look bad. But the way they look – whether they're pink or purple or big or small or quiet or noisy or happy or scary or funny or weird, well, that's something that comes from typography. Which is also called type. Which is sometimes called print.
Printing is what you do when you write letters one at a time, as opposed to script, which is when you write letters so-that-they-con-nect-to-each-other-like-this. Printing is also used to describe what happens when machines (called “presses”) get hold of all those words, all that typography, and actually press the letters together onto paper.
Now here's the really confusing part. A lot of people say print is dead. Flat and not moving. Dead, like when we drive down our road and see a rabbit or a woodchuck that didn't make it across in time.
So as you begin to learn your ABCs, remember that your mind is like a giant alarm clock that wakes those letters up so that they spell something, so that they mean something, whether they're on TV or in a book or scratched on the side of a wall somewhere. And while you're at it, remember that S isn't the same as 5 and L isn't the same as 1. Remember that 1 LoV3 U isn't the same as I LOVE YOU even though it looks cool. Remember that anything that looks cool probably won't look cool for very long. Remember that very long means, well, probably about a day-and-a-half. Remember that pictures may speak louder than words, but that words speak volumes. Remember that sometimes typography can help you understand something or react to something or feel a certain way faster, but that it probably won't help resolve conflicts between embittered nations or advance your capacity for reason or prevent you from getting bee stings or tick bites or chicken pox.
Print isn't dead, sweetheart. It's just sleeping.
Remember that spelling mistakes are celebrated in email but not tole- rated in literature. Remember that literature is made up of stories that are what they are because someone wrote them down, letter by letter, word by word, intending for them to be read and remembered and retold for years and years and years to come.
And even though we read them printed on paper and you will very likely read them emblazoned on a screen, do you know what, Fiona? It doesn't matter, because no matter what the typography does (or doesn't do), and no matter what the print is (or isn't), words are just ideas waiting to be read. And reading will never die. Reading is your ticket to the world.
STRUKTUR, RASTER UND FARBE